November 16, 2009

{Our Wedding} The Engagement Shoot

So ever since I came back from the honeymoon I have been trying to figure out exactly how I should start my wedding recaps. Like I mentioned before, this past year has truly been one that has been all kinds of fun planning adventures. From choosing a cake to being neck high in DIY, my year of planning was really quite fun & exciting. But where to start?

I started by looking at all of the DIY projects I had worked on over the course of the year. And honestly I considered starting there- but then I received a package in the mail that made a light bulb go off in my head. It was the digital negatives for our engagement shoot! Wooo Hooo :)

Receiving those in the mail was truly an exciting day! Being the self proclaimed picture lover that I am- I was in wedding photo heaven! 500 + pictures! So I poured myself a tall glass of sweet tea and started the process of finding my favorites.

As you can imagine- it was tough for me to narrow down my picks. I really am guilty of being photo obsessed. So with the enagement photos in hand, it was that day that I decided I was start from the beginning and work towards the wedding day! Makes sense doesn't it? So here we have some of my faves from part 1 of our engagement shoot.

My photographer, Renee Brock, was truly a pleasure to work with. We decided to meet in The Virginia Highlands in Atlanta which also just happened to be our photographers neighborhood.

Renee took us all over town with different locations in mind. This particular part of the shoot was at the very end of our session when we were about to head back to our car. Renee saw the old picket fence & the old abandoned house and asked us if we wanted to do just a few more pictures?

So out of the car we hopped, and these just so happen to be some of my favorites from our engagement shoot!

The lighting, the rustic backdrop really are quite nice. I think our engagement photos turned out pretty special. And isnt that was a photo shoot is all about? Capturing sweet moments on film! The perspective is just really unexpected as is the overall setting.

My advice regarding engagement shoots..

# 1 Bring a bottle of water after 3 hours of smiling and being 'on' I was seriously parched. Definitely hydrate youself so that you don't end up dehydrated! # 2 Bring a pair of cozy shoes to the shoot so that after a while you can slip your feet into some flats. By this time my feet were seriously killing me. Looking back I'm so glad I brought my cute little red flats- not only be they added a pop of color but because they really gave my feet a break.

# 3Eat before you come to the engagement shoot! My now husband- Brad was seriously famished! To the point where we had to race over to the nearest pizza joint afterwards to partake in some serious eating.

# 4Let go & have fun! After seeing so many incredible engagement shoots online, its easy to fall into the trap of trying to plan everything out. The props, the locations- etc. But what I found is that letting go of all of that & just showing up is actually quite fun. I had no idea where Renee was going to take us and that made for very cool pictures.

#5Resist the urge tolook at the camera. {for every shot} Being the poser that I typically am- this was kind of hard for me at first. My photographer told us to try to not look at her & to just sort of 'be in love.' Well, this was sort of strange at first- but by the nights end we were pretty comfortable & I think it really made for some very special photos.

So there you have it! My top 5 tips for engagement shoots!Hope you enjoyed these photos by Renee Brock. Renee is an Atlanta based photographer who I chose because of her journalistic & story telling approach to taking photos.

I also chose to work with Renee because I really loved her eye for details & because I knew that based on her body of work that our wedding photographs were going to turn out incredible!

Oh & we both actually graduated from The University of Georgia's school of art- so that was definitely something I thought was neat!

So there you have it- A few pics from Part 1 of our engagement shoot! Can't wait to show you the other locations that she shot us in! Such a fun day!

Hi there, Thanks for your comment on my blog, I've been following yours for sometime now and it's fabulous. I really need to update the links on mine so I'll be sure to include yours when I do. Congrats on your recent marriage, such cute photos here! Kate/Ruby&Willow/Magnolia Rouge

aww..I just saw this post, how could I've missed this?! LOLz!^^ You are such a beautiful woman! I love the red shoes you wore to match your dress, very cute and classy. Your guy looks quite a gentleman,looking happy and inlove! Congrats on finding each other! nice photos!